Urban exploration in Japan – Urban explorer Florian Seidel has visited Nara Dreamland more than half a dozen times for his blog Abandoned Kansai. The park, built in 1961, shut its doors in 2006. It's become one of the most popular destinations for Japan-based urban explorers.

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Nara Dreamland – Given the potential dangers of climbing around abandoned amusement park structures, such as this roller coaster, security guards are now stationed at Nara Dreamland. Seidel says the park, an obvious ripoff of Disneyland, couldn't compete with the arrival of Universal Studios Japan in 2001, which is why it closed five years later.

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Awaji Kannon – At a total height of 100 meters, the World Peace Giant Kannon, or Awaji Kannon, is one of the tallest statues in the world. Located on Awaji Island, in Japan's Hyogo Prefecture, it closed in 2006 following the death of its owner. Though put to auction several times since, Seidel says there were no takers.

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Abandoned sex museum – The Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures was a sex museum in a small town near Sapporo.

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Maya Tourist Hotel – The abandoned Maya Tourist Hotel was built in 1929. In a blog post dedicated to his find, Seidel says the deteriorating venue, located halfway up Mt. Maya in Kobe, has been battling the forces of nature since being left to the elements some two decades ago.

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Shimizu Onsen Center – The Shimizu Onsen Center was a public bath in the mountains of Japan's Shikoku island. In Japanese culture, frogs symbolize good fortune.

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Animal carcasses – Macabre as they are, decaying animals are part of the urban exploration experience and often covered in blog posts by global followers of the trend. This unfortunate creature was snapped at the abandoned Shimizu Onsen Center.

Enter at your own risk – On October 10, 2011, Kyoto police arrested 16 people at the abandoned Kasagi Hotel -- and left notes as a warning to anyone who might be tempted to do some exploring of their own. Though much of urban exploration is considered trespassing -- and sometimes dangerous -- devotees stress they "take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."

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Furuichi Love Hotel – The Furuichi Love Hotel in Hyogo Prefecture was once an hourly refuge for Japanese couples from all walks of life. Seidel has visited several abandoned Japanese love hotels, which are featured on his site.

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Abandoned mine – Seidel photographed this welder's mask at an abandoned mine somewhere in the mountains of Japan. As with most urbexers, Seidel doesn't give away exact locations of his finds, largely because he doesn't want to see them overrun.

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Story highlights

Around the world, urban explorers hunt down and often photograph society's crumbling edifices

In Japan, urban exploration is referred to as "haikyo," the Japanese word for "ruins"

But give it a Japanese name and this underground community, known for seeking out derelict and often inaccessible environments, sounds even more hardcore.

Haikyo is the Japanese word for ruins and is the term used to describe urban exploration ("urbex"), a growing trend for people to track down and often photograph society's crumbling edifices.

Urbex in Japan plays out in much the same way it does in the rest of the world -- explorers are recreational trespassers who seek out abandoned, man-made structures, where they have a good poke around as they soak up the atmosphere.

There are few hard and fast rules aside from the oft-quoted mantra -- "Take nothing but photographs, leave only footprints" -- but there are a few aspects that are unique to urban exploration in Japan.

Among these, abandoned amusement parks and sex museums.

German Florian Seidel, a translator, has lived in Japan more than seven years and been a dedicated urbexer for almost five.

He says he's seen the hobby take off in Japan since he started.

Although there are no official numbers -- urbexers tend to be a low key, scattered community not least of all because of the potentially illegal aspects of the business, such as trespassing -- he says the number of urbex blogs has exploded from a dozen when he started to about 100 today, most of which are in Japanese.

"There are tons of abandoned places in Japan, the problem is you have to find them," says Seidel.

That's the part he most enjoys.

He's proud of the fact that more than 90% of the places on his site, Abandonedkansai.com, he has researched and found himself.

As with most urbexers, he doesn't give away exact locations, largely because he doesn't want to see them overrun.